Emergency welfare states in action: Social policy adaptations to COVID-19 in the Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia

Abstract

This article analyses the developments of the welfare state's reaction to the pandemic in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia during 2020–2022, asking whether the changes in social policy represent only temporary responses to the challenges of the pandemic, or if the changes will likely lead to long-run transformative changes in social policies. All three countries applied emergency adaptive changes to some extent except for job protection, as the short-time work schemes represent a permanent change in Czechia and Slovakia. Furthermore, the absorption capacity of the welfare state was relatively good, which enabled the countries to avoid the negative social impacts of the crisis in terms of increased unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion. We argue the governments did not introduce permanent third-order change because they already introduced such changes during the transition to the market economy in which they introduced a low-expenditure welfare state trajectory. During the pandemic, this trajectory limited their fiscal space for introducing reforms that could radically expand the welfare state. Policy learning and political constellations also had some influence.